Future Shock Blog

Minor League Update: Games of June 29

A second-round pick in 2007 as a third baseman, West simply never developed as a hitter, and after hitting .241/.344/.364 in 346 games without getting past Low-A, the Rangers moved him to the mound, as his best tool turned out to be his top-of-the-scale arm. After an off-season of training, he began his new career back in Spokane, and in his first four games he has fired 5.1 scoreless innings while allowing three hits and striking eight. Last night, he sat at 95-97 mph with a good slider, so there's stuff to back up the performance and he's suddenly someone to keep an eye on again.

Sean Coyle, 2B, Red Sox (Low-A Greenville): 3-for-5, 2 2B, 2 R, 3 RBI. Difficult player to evaluate, as he's not hitting for average but there are walks and 64% of his hits are for extra bases; .231/.341/.473 in 50 games.

Nick Evans, OF/1B/3B, Mets (Triple-A Buffalo): 5-for-5, 2B, R. Arguably the hottest hitter in the minors with a 38-for-74 (.514) run during 19-game hitting streak; still doesn't profile well for the positions he is limited to.

Gorkys Hernandez, OF, Pirates (Triple-A Indianapolis): 4-for-4, 2B, RBI. Up to .298/.354/.396 and looking like he'll have a big league future again thanks to a bit of offense and plus-plus defensive ability.

"Weiland threw 70 of his 99 pitches for strikes and hit 94 mph on the radar gun. Four of his strikeouts came on just 3 pitches, and a breakdown of his 12 Ks shows how well Kyle used his entire repertoire.

Just to clarify, I am in no way suggesting that Weiland is as good as Beachy or will have the same level of success, more just wondering about Beachy. By pitchfx, Beachy's pitches don't look much different from his mixed results last season, but he did start throwing sliders at the big league level, and I was wondering how much that made his other offerings more effective.

I think Beachy's ability to locate is what makes all of his pitches play up. He puts stuff where he wants it, and while it's not something we can measure on a statistical level, he also has HUGE you know what and pitches with utterly no fear, and that makes a difference.

Kevin, despite the uptick in velocity this season, Henderson Alvarez is maintaining a relatively low strikeout rate. Does this portend a pitch-to-contact approach that may not be as effective in the majors, or something else?

Great to see something about Matt West. I was afraid he had been released after his poor showing at Hickory last season. My four-year-old still talks about him getting hit in the head with a pitch in a game we saw here in 2010. He will be interested to know that West is now pitching.